Sunday, September 08, 2013

Bedroom Tax Cases Open To New Appeals Following Landmark Judgement

A Kirkcaldy Benefits Tribunal has made a judgement which
opens the way for hundreds of thousands of appeals, and which drives a
coach and horses through the ConDem Coalition’s hated Bedroom Tax.
In an appeal against Fife Council’s
decision that a tenant of what the landlord said was a three-bedroomed
property had to pay for ‘under-occupying’ two bedrooms, the Tribunal
judge ruled that the property in question in fact had just one bedroom,
and the tenant was not liable for any bedroom tax.
The judge also ruled that the Council must refund the tenant all the
housing benefit it had deducted since its original decision. Crucially the judgement also makes clear that a council:

cannot make a reliable bedroom tax decision on the assumption that
data submissions from a landlord on bedroom numbers are correct;

must know the room purpose and usage as at the time it makes the benefit tax decision for that decision to be reliable;

must consider not just room size in making a decision but also usable floor space.

The process in determining bedroom tax liability across Merseyside was no different from that adopted by Fife council:
every bedroom tax decision made by Wirral, Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley
and Halton councils is therefore arbitrary and rife for challenge and
must be appealed by every affected tenant.

Merseyside Federation will continue its work to ensure that tenants
know they have both a right and a responsibility to appeal against this
vicious attack on the poor.